Puerto Rico's Status Is Quo

December 16, 1998

Sunday's raucous plebiscite in Puerto Rico was both impressive and puzzling.

In sharp contrast to the electoral rigor mortis prevalent in the mainland United States, campaigning in Puerto Rico was loud and fierce, with an astonishing 71 percent voter turnout. And despite the din of multiple slogans, often contradictory or misleading, a majority of voters rejected options calling for large changes and instead voted for "none of the above."

There is dispute as to what that option meant, but supporters of the status quo, generally called commonwealth, urged a "none of the above" vote because of what they said was tendentious wording in the commonwealth option formally presented on the ballot. What is indisputable is that neither statehood, with 46.5 percent, nor independence, with a paltry 2.5 percent, commanded majority support.

Puerto Ricans may not be pleased with their neither-fish-nor-fowl status in the world, but they clearly are not so unhappy that they want to change it.

Yet some people, led by statehood advocate Gov. Pedro J. Rossello, apparently won't take no (or "none") for an answer. Rossello vows to seek congressional authorization for a binding referendum on Puerto Rico's status.

Legislation for such a binding plebiscite was approved by the House earlier this year--by a one-vote margin--but the Senate never took up the issue. Another proposal in 1990 suffered a similar fate.

Talk of Puerto Rican statehood gives rise to passionate--and not always noble--debates in the U.S. Republicans, in particular, are conflicted, with such party elders as Jack Kemp and former President George Bush arguing for it as a matter of principle. Others shiver at the thought of two new senators and as many as six representatives--probably all Democrats--joining Congress and tipping the partisan scales. And there are bipartisan concerns, some legitimate and some overblown, about the wisdom of adding as a state a largely Spanish-speaking land that would be the poorest state in the nation.

But such debates are premature until a majority of Puerto Ricans indicate that they desire a change of status. Sunday's advisory referendum suggests they do not, that they prefer for now to retain the status quo, which makes them U.S. citizens and subject to military service, but without representation in Congress, federal income taxes or the right to vote in federal elections.